The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average of 271,900 daily subscribers. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the Galveston Daily News, of Galveston, Texas.
Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States. Throughout the 1990s and as recently as 2010, the paper has won nine Pulitzer Prizes for reporting and photography, George Polk Awards for education reporting and regional reporting, and an Overseas Press Club award for photography. The company has its headquarters in downtown Dallas.
History
The Dallas Morning News was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of the Galveston Daily News by Alfred Horatio Belo. In 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher, George Dealey.In 1904, The Dallas Morning News began publishing the Texas Almanac, which had previously been published intermittently during the 1800s by the Galveston Daily News. After over a century of publishing by the Morning News, the Almanac's assets were gifted to the Texas State Historical Association in May 2008.
By the late 1940s, the Morning News had built and opened a new office, newsroom, and printing plant at Houston and Young Streets on the southwest side of downtown Dallas. A notable part of the facade above the front doors includes a quote etched in the stony exterior:
The complex at 508 Young Street would house all or part of the Morning News operations for the next six decades.
In late 1991, The Dallas Morning News became the lone major newspaper in the Dallas market when the Dallas Times Herald was closed after several years of circulation wars between the two papers, especially over the then-burgeoning classified advertising market. In July 1986, the Times Herald was purchased by William Dean Singleton, owner of MediaNews Group. After 18 months of efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On December 8, 1991, Belo bought the Times Herald for $55 million, closing the paper the next day.
It was not the first time the Belo family had bought a paper named The Herald in Dallas.
In 2003, a Spanish-language newspaper was launched by The Dallas Morning News, called Al Día. Initially Al Día came with a purchase price, but in recent years the newspaper has been made available free of charge. It is published twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.
Between 2003 and 2011, a tabloid-sized publication called Quick was published by The Dallas Morning News, which initially focused on general news in a quick-read, digest form, but in later years covered mostly entertainment and lifestyle stories.
In late 2013, The Dallas Morning News ended its longtime newsgathering collaboration with previously-co-owned TV station WFAA. The newspaper entered into a new partnership with KXAS at that time.
Historically, the Morning News has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas′ drift to the Republican Party since the 1950s. However, on September 7, 2016 it endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the first time it had endorsed a Democrat for president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. This came a day after it ran a scathing editorial declaring Republican candidate Donald Trump "not qualified to serve as president." It was the first time that the paper had refused to endorse a Republican since 1964. Then, in wake of the approaching 2018 midterm elections, the Morning News once again endorsed a Democratic candidate: Beto O'Rourke, the challenger to incumbent Senator Ted Cruz.
In late 2016 it was announced that The Dallas Morning News would move away from its home of 68 years on Young Street, to a building on Commerce Street previously used by the Dallas Public Library for its downtown branch. The Commerce Street address is one-third the size of the Young Street complex. Reasons given for the move included technology innovations, fewer staff, as well as printing presses no longer co-located with the newsroom and main offices. By December 2017, the move was completed. The former property at 508 Young was sold by October 2018 to a business partnership, which was looking into possible redevelopment opportunities for the complex, but in December 2018 the partnership backed out of the deal.
Changes were announced in January 2019 which included staff layoffs and reducing the paper's Business section to one separate section per week, on Sunday; the remainder of the week, Business coverage would be found in the paper's Metro section. A total of 43 employees were affected by the move.
In late February 2019, several printing agreements were not renewed at the Morning News suburban printing plant, and 92 positions were affected by the change there. Publications that had to find a different printing partner included Dallas Observer and Fort Worth Weekly.
Awards
Pulitzer Prizes
- 1986: National Reporting
- 1989: Explanatory Journalism
- 1991: Feature Photography
- 1992: Investigative Reporting
- 1993: Spot News Photography
- 1994: International Reporting
- 2004: Breaking News Photography
- 2006: Breaking News Photography
- 2010: Editorial Writing
George Polk Awards
- 1990: Gayle Reaves, David Hanners, and David McLemore for regional reporting
- 1994: Olive Talley for education reporting
Overseas Press Club Awards
- 2001: Cheryl Diaz Meyer for photographic reporting from abroad
National Headliner Awards
- 2017:
- * Spot News in Daily Newspapers
- * Local Interest Column on a Variety of Subjects
- * Special or Feature Column on One Subject by an Individual
- * Editorial Writing by an Individual or Team
- * Sports Column by an Individual
- * Sports Writing by an Individual or Team
- * Business News Coverage, Business Commentary and/or Business Columns by an Individual or Team
- * Newspaper Spot News Photography
- * Newspaper Feature Photography
- * Newspaper Sports Photography
- * Photography Portfolio
- * Photo Essay/Story
- * Newspaper/Magazine Illustration or Informational Graphics by an Individual or Team
Katie Awards, Press Club of Dallas
- 2005:
- * Buck Marryat Award, career journalism excellence
- * Feature Story, Major Market Newspapers
- * Investigative Reporting, Major Market Newspapers
- * Government/Political Story, Major Market Newspapers
- * Sports Story, Major Market Newspapers
- * Sports Column, Major Market Newspapers
- * Newspaper News Page Layout
- * Best News Website
- * Best Website Content
- * Best Website Graphics
- 2008:
- * Business Reporting, Large Newspapers
- * Best Column, Large Newspapers
- * Best Feature, Large Newspapers
- * Best Investigative Series/Story, Large Newspapers
- * Best Series, Large Newspapers
- * Best Specialty Reporting, Large Newspapers
- * Best Sports Reporting, Large Newspapers
- * Best Headline Writing, Large Newspapers
- * Best Website
- * Photographer of the Year
- * Best Blog
Hugh Aynesworth Awards, Press Club of Dallas
- 2018:
- * Daily Newspaper Investigative Reporting
- * Public Service
- * Daily Newspaper Feature Reporting
- * Sports Feature Reporting